Biomass, simply put, is fuel derived from organic materials. As you might already know, especially if you are taking JC Physics tuition, biomass is a sustainable and renewable source of energy and used for creating electricity.
Materials that are used as biomass fuel include the following, among others:
- Forest debris
- Scrap lumber
- Manure
- Certain crops
- Certain waste residues
Biomass, a type of green energy, can be produced continuously because the waste supply is unabated.
As said above, biomass is an example of a renewable source of energy. This is because of the following reasons:
- Waste residues, like mill residuals, forest debris, and scrap wood, will continue to exist. That is, the supply will never run dry.
- By managing forests properly, we can ensure that tree count will constantly increase, which in turn will ensure we always have crops as well as the residual matter from them.
Biomass Power Explained
Biomass is the name of the carbon neutral electricity produced from replaceable organic waste which otherwise would end up in landfills or be burned openly or increase the risk of forest fire.
The energy present in biomass is released in form of heat when you burn biomass. You might already be using biomass at home without knowing it. For instance, the wood you use in the fireplace in your home to keep it warm is an example of using biomass, as wood is a type of biomass fuel.
In the case of biomass power stations, biomass fuel, typically wood, is burned for producing steam, which supplies power to a turbine for making electricity. Thanks to advancement in technology, now it is possible to ensure emissions released when biomass is burned are not harmful at all.
Main Advantages of Biomass Energy
There are many advantages of using biomass energy, such as these:
- Harmless Emissions – When biomass is used in a sustainable manner, there’s no net increase in the levels of CO2. This basically means that no harm is done to our precious environment. In the case of traditional sources of energy, like gas and oil, this is not the case.
- Readily available – This is another big advantage of biomass energy. As said earlier biomass fuel is are readily available, and not only that, they are also renewable.
- Reduce use of fossil fuels – We can reduce our dependency on coal and oil (both are most commonly used fossil fuels) by using biomass energy. Compared to fossil fuels, biomass fuel takes extremely less time to grow. For example trees as well as animals grow in a few years, but the earth takes a few million years to convert wood to coal.
- Reduce landfills – Technically speaking, as you would have probably learned in your physics tuition, it is possible to use any waste product to produce energy. By reusing a part of the total rubbish produced, we can make landfill sites less crowded.
Can be used for producing different products – Versatility is another strong point of biomass energy. For instance, now it is possible to produce ethanol from corn or fuel from droppings of chicken.
